A Midsummer Afternoon's Nap
by tokyoblackcatgirl
Summary: He briefly wondered if it was really worth all the effort it was taking just to find a quiet place to sleep, but since he’d already come this far, there was no point in stopping now. Almost but not quite Stark/Ichigo.


Title: A Midsummer Afternoon's Nap

Author: Arisa

Pairing: None at the moment. Sort of a prelude to Stark/Ichigo though…you heard me.

Warnings: None really. This was written some time after chapter 313 came out, so we don't actually know Stark's true rank or much of his personality yet. This will most likely become AU sometime in the future.

Disclaimer: Bleach not mine

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Ichigo was walking to school when he saw him. The man with wavy brown hair dressed in all white who had the remnants of a hollow mask hanging around his neck like a disturbing piece of jewelry; the man whose confidently relaxed demeanor alluded to the fact that he was not the average arrancar that Ichigo had taken to fighting on an almost daily basis. Although Ichigo had never seen this one before, he would be willing to bet all the money in the world that he was one of Aizen's elite,

An Espada.

They stared at each other for some moments before the espada finally spoke.

"Yo, I'm Stark" he said, carefully removing one glove and extending his hand in a gesture of friendliness. Ichigo's eyes grew wide at the sight of the gothic "1" tattooed on the other's palm. He did not opt to shake the offered hand, instead frantically reaching for his Shinigami badge, but Stark stopped him, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling his hand away using slightly more force than was strictly necessary.

"Come on now, don't be like that. I'm not here to fight you, not that you'd actually stand the smallest chance of beating me." Stark's expression was an odd mix of amused and mildly annoyed. Ichigo, after switching from determined to scared to angry, finally settled on simply looking confused.

"Why exactly are you here then?" Ichigo inquired.

"To be perfectly honest," the Primera replied, "There's no decent place for a guy to take a nap in Las Noches without being rudely awakened by someone or other. Besides that, sleeping on a pile of pillows on the floor is not nearly as comfortable as it sounds."

Ichigo was disbelieving, "So you're trying to tell me that you, the strongest arrancar in Aizen's army, came to the human world…because you wanted to take a nap??"

Stark nodded, seemingly not catching the skepticism in Ichigo's words. "That's exactly what I'm saying. You know kid," he continued, looking Ichigo up and down, "You look like the kinda guy who has a bed; a real soft and comfy one, care to let me test that theory?"

Ichigo could not believe what he was hearing. Out of all the strange things that had happened to him since becoming a Shinigami, this easily ranked number one. Ichigo really didn't want anything to do with the espada, especially as it looked like he wasn't going to have to fight him, so he tried to weasel his way out of helping.

"Afraid I can't help you with this one, I'm already late to school as it is so go find somewhere to nap on your own." Ichigo started to walk away but Stark caught hold of his wrist again.

Stark raised an eyebrow, "And I'm afraid that you don't exactly understand the situation. Now I'm certainly not the type to exert myself without good reason, but you are aware that I could level this town without half trying, right?" The espada inwardly sighed, he really hated making threats, but the boy seemed like the type of person who only understood violence, so violence he must use in order to get what he wanted. He briefly wondered if it was really worth all the effort it was taking just to find a quiet place to sleep, but since he'd already come this far, there was no point in stopping now.

"So now you're threatening me?" Ichigo asked, incredulous.

"Simply trying to show you that my humble request is truly in your best interests; anyways, were I to actually threaten you, there wouldn't be anything you could do about it." Stark now took his other hand out of his pocket to reveal Ichigo's Shinigami badge. Ichigo gaped, frantically searching his pockets as if he'd magically find a duplicate.

"When did you….how-" Stark cut him off, "I've had it this entire time, you're just terribly slow and therefore, didn't notice. Now are we going to your place or not?" he continued, yawning, "I'm missing my midmorning nap, and that tends to piss me off."

"Fine, let's go," Ichigo replied, defeated. With that they started on the ten minute walk back to Ichigo's house.

Stark didn't speak again until they were almost at Ichigo's house. "Say kid-"

"My name's not "kid" you know," Ichigo interjected.

"Oh that's right, you've got some kinda fruity name don't you." Stark said, more to himself than Ichigo. "Lessee, Ringo, err no. Mikan, who'd name their kid that? Momo, well you don't look like a Momo, but Aizen did mention a Momo once…"

"Ichigo. My name is Ichigo," said berry quickly responded before Stark could start calling him something weird, "We're at the house now, wait here so I can make sure no one's around."

"You mean they aren't used to you bringing strange boys home?" the other teased.

"Sh-shut up!" Ichigo stammered as a blush spread across his cheeks. "I've never even had a boyfriend and my family doesn't exactly know I'm gay." Stark chuckled while Ichigo, realizing what he had just confessed, blushed even more.

"Well you'd better not tell anybody!" Ichigo said, indignant.

"Don't worry, the day Aizen actually becomes interested in the love life of a fifteen year old, I'll be sure to keep your secret safe."

"Uh, yeah…Well just wait here a minute, ok?"

A short amount of time later Ichigo reemerged from the building, motioning for Stark to follow him inside.

As soon as Stark saw Ichigo's bed, he calmly walked over and lay down, testing for comfort. He could've leapt for joy, except for that fact that Ichigo would no longer take him seriously and he was too tired anyways. Ichigo's bed felt like heaven compared to what he was used to, it was soft and comfortable and had lots of pillows; exactly how he liked it and far better than what he had been expecting. His thoughts were interrupted when Ichigo spoke up.

"Err, do you need me to…turn off the light or something?" Ichigo could hardly understand how someone could have a look of such pure bliss by just laying down, but he supposed that it was far better than having the Primera Espada here to pick a fight.

"Nah, it doesn't matter, just don't wake me up if you know what's good for you." Stark replied in all seriousness.

"I'm just gonna read, so I'll be quiet. But, when my sisters come home from school, you have to leave, alright?" Ichigo demanded cautiously. "If my family finds out you're here…"

"I get it, I get it, I'll make myself scarce so shut up now." And with that, Stark rolled over on his side and promptly fell asleep.

"That was fast," Ichigo thought. Well, it didn't really matter to him what the other did so long as his family or soul society didn't find out about it, so Ichigo walked over to his bookshelf, grabbed his well-loved copy of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ and leaned against the edge of the bed, soon losing himself in the play and almost forgetting the other man was even there. Not completely though, because every once in a while, he would look up at the sleeping form, as if to make sure that Stark was actually real. But the other man would always be there and his soft, even breathing was oddly comforting to Ichigo. The rest of the afternoon was spent pleasantly in this way and Ichigo idly thought that it really wouldn't be so bad if the Espada ever decided to come back. Before he realized it, the orange-haired boy had fallen asleep on the floor.

Hours later, Ichigo woke to the sound of Yuzu calling him down to dinner. Ichigo looked up from his position on the floor to find his bed virtually untouched. Ichigo went down the stairs wondering if it had all been a dream. But wait, had he been sleeping with a pillow under his head earlier?

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Notes: This is a one-shot that I'll most likely write a sequel for, but I'm about to go on vacation for a month and I wanted to go ahead and post this to see if anyone was actually interested in this pairing and would perhaps like to read more.

I like Comments and Constructive Criticism (mini!rant) and yes, I can tell the difference between CC and a flame, if you didn't like my story please tell me why. Actually, if you did like my story tell me why as well. "OMG love it update soon plz" is no more helpful than "OMG UR STORY SUKED." (/mini!rant) Err, well I mean you don't have to comment, but it'd sure be nice!

(In case you didn't know)

Ringo means Apple

Mikan means Mandarin Orange

Momo means Peach

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!

Arisa


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